Jul 16

Friday Myriad: Morning TV, friendly soccer

By Beau Dure cycling, golf, olympic sports, poker, rugby, soccer, tv No Comments »

I have survived Double Deadline Day. I survived the sauna that passes for RFK Stadium’s press box. I survived the long Metro ride home, which ended with a ranting woman accusing me of using my Blackberry to transmit shortwave signals into her head to make her hair fall out. (Among other problems corroborating such an accusation: She had a very healthy head of hair.)

So what will I be watching now that all of this is done? There’s the British Open, which some will watch for Tiger drama but I enjoy for the spectacle of seeing pro golfers deal with bunkers that look like they’re hiding the Millennium Falcon. The Tour de France has a good two-man race between defending champ Alberto Contador and youngster Andy Schleck. And there’s soccer, soccer and more soccer.

FRIDAY

7 p.m.: Soccer, Manchester United-Celtic. Euro friendlies have always struck me as something I’d much rather watch in person than on TV, but plenty of people would disagree with me on that. Must be a considerable number disagreeing with me, as this game is taking up an ESPN network’s air time rather than filling summer time slots on FSC. ESPN2

9 p.m.: Boxing, Zab Judah-Jose Armando Santa Cruz. Unusual to see a name like Judah’s on the Friday Night Fights card. ESPN2

SATURDAY

3:35 a.m.: Rugby, Tri-Nations, New Zealand-South Africa. See Travis’ preview.

5 a.m.: Golf, British Open coverage starts with multiple angles/holes online, then on TV at 7 a.m. ESPN/ESPN3.com

8:30 a.m.: Cycling, Tour de France, Stage 13. Versus

Noon: Soccer, USA-Switzerland, U-20 Women’s World Cup. Fresh from a stunning 1-1 draw with Ghana, which would apparently frustrate the USA in every sport ever invented, the young Americans try to regroup against the Swiss. Good news for the Swiss: They have Atlanta Beat prodigy Ramona Bachmann. Bad news: They lost their opener 4-0 to South Korea. ESPNU/ESPN3.com

4 p.m.: Soccer, San Jose-Tottenham. Really? This friendly is on TV while Philly-Toronto (3:30), Columbus-New York (7:30), Dallas-Salt Lake (8:30) and Colorado-Kansas City (9) are on Direct Kick and online? OK, then. Columbus-New York won’t feature Thierry Henry’s debut, but the Red Bulls could leap over the Crew into first in the East.  ESPN/ESPN Deportes

7:30 p.m.: Soccer, USA-Sweden women. Tale of two halves when these teams met earlier in the week. The USA dominated the first half and finally got a goal. Early in the second, Amy Rodriguez hit the crossbar, and Sweden scored on a counter. It finished 1-1, with Sweden looking better the rest of the way. That’s not normal for a home game and speaks to a possible depth problem. Fox Soccer Channel

SUNDAY

6 a.m.: Golf, British Open. All feeds live at the same time. ESPN/ESPN3.com

7:30 a.m.: Cycling, Tour de France, Stage 14. Versus

3 p.m.: Soccer, Seattle-Celtic. Again, huge game if you’re within driving/train-riding distance of Qwest Field. Or if you have a fierce Celtic tie. ESPN/ESPN Deportes

5 p.m.: Soccer, WPS, Boston-Washington. The Breakers are making a charge with two straight wins, while the goals have dried up for the Freedom. FSC

7:30 p.m.: Soccer, MLS, D.C. United-Los Angeles. Both teams looking to rebound from a loss. There, the similarities end. It’s worst vs. first at RFK. (Technically, D.C. is a point ahead of Philly, but the Union have three games in hand.) FSC

MORE MYRIAD

  • World Series of Poker: Main Event will be whittled down to 27 players on Friday and then down to the “November Nine” on Saturday.
  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America, including SuperLiga.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: U-20 Women’s World Cup, Australian Rules football, CFL, NBA Summer League and a ton of golf.
  • Tennis Channel: Nothing live this weekend.
  • Universal Sports: Ironman, some Tour simulcasts and AVP Hermosa Beach.
  • More Olympic sports: U.S. championships in boxing and mountain bike.
Jul 14

Paralympic poker player cashing in

By Beau Dure poker, track and field No Comments »

No, poker hasn’t been added to the Olympics or Paralympics. But a Paralympic veteran is having some success in the World Series of Poker’s Main Event.

Marlon Shirley, two-time gold medalist at 100 meters and a man with an inspiring story of overcoming multiple adversities, is still in the Main Event and is now guaranteed to make at least $41,967 off his $10,000 buy-in.

Shirley is Tweeting under the apropos handle ibtrackin, and he shared the news when UFC announcer Bruce Buffer was ousted on a really unlucky hand. Buffer was full of good cheer as he departed. The $27,519 prize didn’t hurt, but Buffer is a perpetually friendly person.

The Main Event is down to 313 players from the original 7,319 and still includes multiple Mizrachi family members.

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Jul 13

Cycling, poker and unreal time

By Beau Dure cycling, poker No Comments »

We’re spoiled today on so many levels. International supply chains bring us all the world’s goods, from Colombian coffee to Vidalia onions. Our TVs brings us crisp images of live events on the other side of the globe. We can listen to new music on our mobile phones. We get 40-50 soccer games on TV a week.

So we shouldn’t have an entitlement mentality about live stuff.

With that disclaimer in mind, I’ve encountered a couple of frustrations in following Myriad sports in the past 24 hours.

In cycling, it’s a frustration of being so close and yet so far to knowing where everyone is in real time. The official Tour de France site has changed little over the past few years, which is itself a bit of an indictment in the fast-changing new media world. Still, the framework is sound — when it works. Today, it didn’t.

Continue reading »

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Jul 12

Monday Myriad: No soccer withdrawal here

By Beau Dure basketball, chess, cycling, olympic sports, poker, rugby, soccer, track and field No Comments »

Sixteen years ago, I felt a few pangs of withdrawal. I had been able to watch maybe half of the World Cup games on my little TV in my little living room in my little apartment. After that dreary final … nothing. No MLS. No regular European broadcasts. No women’s soccer.

Sunday, an hour after bidding farewell to the group of friends who came over to drink Dutch and (blech) Spanish beer while we gorged ourselves on food and watched a final that was a little less dreary, I went back into our HDTV room downstairs and flipped to Fox Soccer Channel. WPS — Washington Freedom vs. FC Gold Pride. And while the officiating was just as atrocious as the worst of what we saw from South Africa, I could rest assured that I was still watching soccer. As I’ve said elsewhere, U.S. soccer fans have been enabled. We can watch all weekend. And all week. Sorry, Tim Dahlberg, but we don’t need your permission.

And because we’re sports geeks who watch and comment on every competition shy of the foosball games downstairs (for the record, I was able to play an actual game against someone tall enough to see the table for once, and I won twice by a 10-2 count), we have much else to follow as well.

Women’s soccer: USA’s revenge over Ghana! The USA start play Tuesday in the U-20 Women’s World Cup, and it’ll be an upset to end all upsets if Ghana duplicates its 2006 and 2010 2-1 men’s victories. Dive all you want. Not going to happen.

Cycling: Lance Armstrong is now fourth in the Tour de France … on his own team. We can see if Team Radio Shack regroups to give Levi Leipheimer a push for the final podium, but more realistically, we’re looking at a Cadel Evans-Andy Schleck-Alberto Contador shootout.

Olympics (winter and summer): We’ve seen speedskaters take up cycling. Bobsledders recruit from football and track. So can skeleton veteran Katie Uhlaender make it back to the Olympics in weightlifting?

Volleyball: The U.S. men made a nice run at the World League final six, beating Russia in the first match of two in the final weekend. But the pool leaders came back for a 3-1 win in the finale, and the USA didn’t qualify as the “lucky loser” second-place team.

Basketball: Gold medal for USA U-17 men.

Track and field: Tyson Gay beat Asafa Powell in the highlight of the Diamond League’s stop in England.

Rowing: USA women’s eight still a powerhouse.

Poker: We’re down to 2,557 players in the World Series of Poker Main Event. Exiting gracefully on Day 2B were poker legend Doyle Brunson, baseball great Orel Hershiser, Seinfeld‘s Jason Alexander, Phil Ivey and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.

Some of the names we’ll be watching on Day 3 (which is really Day 7, but they have four Day 1s and two Day 2s to accommodate the crowd):

- Bruce Buffer, UFC cage announcer
- Hank Azaria, Apu and many, many other Simpsons voices
- Johnny Chan, two-time Main Event winner
- Chris Moneymaker, 2003 surprise winner who helped start the poker boom
- Joe Cada, defending champion
- Daniel Negreanu, top poker pro and lively Twitter personality
- Allen Cunningham, like Negreanu a former WSOP Player of the Year
- Frank Kassela, sure to be this year’s Player of the Year
- Jennifer Harman, top poker pro
- Phil “Unabomber” Laak, one of the better nicknames among poker pros
- Vanessa Rousso, Duke grad like me but obviously much smarter
- Jack Ury, age 97
- Gabe Kaplan, Mr. Kotter

Sunday was a rest day at the WSOP, but they’ll be back on the Tour de France’s rest day Monday. Strange how that works.

Rugby: New Zealand sent what some in the U.S. media might call “a message,” dominating South Africa 32-12 in a Tri Nations matchup ahead of next year’s World Cup in New Zealand.

Cricket: Bangladesh beat England for the first time ever in a one-day international. Carrie Dunn captured some of the late drama.

Jul 09

Friday Myriad: Up all night for Aussie Rules, MMA, Le Tour

By Beau Dure chess, cycling, olympic sports, poker, soccer, tennis, track and field, tv No Comments »

No, I didn’t forget. Today was a last-ditch effort to get some progress on two nagging free-lance assignments.

Which reminds me — if you or someone you know is a male caregiver for a spouse or loved one who has breast cancer AND you’ve done the Komen 3-day walk, could you please, please get in touch with me?

On to the weekend (all times ET):

SATURDAY

12:01 a.m.: Australian football, Geelong-Hawthorn. Nice to see this sport making a comeback on U.S. airwaves. Still have no idea how anyone has the stamina to run for two hours while being pummeled every time the ball is nearby. ESPN2

3 a.m.: MMA, Dream 15, lightweight title fight, Shinya Aoki-Tatsuya Kawajiri. Also in action: Gegard Mousasi, Melvin Manhoef, Gesias Cavalcante. If you can’t watch live, check recaps from my colleague Sergio Non. HDNet

7:30 a.m.: Tour de France, Stage 7. To the mountains we go! Well, sort of. Just a couple of category-2 climbs today. The Alpine stages this year aren’t quite as torturous as usual, with most of the massive climbs coming in the Pyrenees in the third week. Versus

8 a.m.: Davis-Cup, quarterfinals, France-Spain, doubles. France leads 2-0. They’re playing without Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but Spain is playing without someone named Nadal. Gael Monfils outlasted David Ferrer in a five-setter Friday. Tennis Channel

Noon: MLS, Toronto-Colorado. In case you need a warm-up for the big one. Some of CONCACAF’s best attacking talent is on display in this one, even if one of the defenses tends to play with what Bob Dylan called “a little too much force.” Direct Kick/MLSSoccer.com

2:30 p.m.: World Cup third-place game, Uruguay-Germany. These games are often entertaining. Near the end of a World Cup that has brought some excellent games but quite a few dreary efforts, can that be so bad? ABC/Univision

3:30 p.m.: Women’s basketball, WNBA All-Stars vs. U.S. National Team. Really? You couldn’t have waited another hour, when the Cup final would likely be over? ESPN

6 p.m.: MLS, Philadelphia-San Jose. The Earthquakes could be interesting this season. Fox Soccer Channel

7:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.: MLS, the rest of the Saturday games (four), with the New York-D.C. United rivalry among the highlights. Direct Kick/MLSSoccer.com

SUNDAY

7 a.m.: Davis-Cup, quarterfinals, France-Spain, singles. Tennis Channel

7:30 a.m.: Tour de France, Stage 8. Two category-1 climbs, including one at the finish. That’s more like it. Will we see the virtual end of Lance Armstrong’s career here? Versus

2:30 p.m.: World Cup, final, Netherlands-Spain. I picked Spain over Brazil in the final, and I’m sticking with the team that never loses possession of the ball. ABC/Univision

6 p.m.: WPS, Gold Pride-Washington. Wonder how the Freedom will adjust after practicing all week in 100-degree temperatures. I went out to practice today, and the artificial turf field felt like a frying pan. FSC

10:30 p.m.: MLS, Seattle-Dallas. I don’t usually list all the Direct Kick games, but if you’re going into withdrawal just six hours after the end of the Cup, here you go. Direct Kick/MLSSoccer.com

MORE MYRIAD

  • World Series of Poker: Main Event runs all weekend.
  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: Australian Rules football, CFL, NBA Summer League and lacrosse.
  • Tennis Channel: A few re-runs and the France-Spain Davis Cup match.
  • Universal Sports: Beach volleyball (FIVB Grand Slam), track and field (Diamond League, British Grand Prix) live online, delayed on TV. Swimming (Grand Prix season finale, Los Angeles) online-only. In beach volleyball, the top U.S. teams were upset in pool play, which doesn’t happen often, but still advanced.
  • More Olympic sports: Why is no one Webcasting the last weekend of World League volleyball pool play? U.S. men hosting Russia in Wichita. Wait a few weeks, and you can watch (see PDF).
  • Rugby: Tri-Nations (Southern Hemisphere) gets underway this weekend, just in case South African sports attention can be diverted for a moment.

HEADLINES

Chess/poker: Chessboxing just seems strange, but chesspoker has possibilities. Jennifer Shahade takes us through a matchup.

Soccer: 3rd Degree is basically the grandfather of independent MLS sites, so it’s nice to see Buzz Carrick take the operation into ESPNDallas.com. Could also bode well for ESPN’s MLS Draft coverage? Maybe?

Jul 07

Midweek Myriad: Mind games

By Beau Dure chess, cycling, poker No Comments »

You may have noticed from the last post that Sports Myriad has a new contributor from across the pond. Carrie Dunn was part of the legendary crew of Guardian minute-by-minute and over-by-over commentators, though she’s more charitable to Americans than most of them. She’ll write about a lot of sports — darts, cricket, women’s sports — that I’ve wanted to cover at Sports Myriad but haven’t had much of a chance to cover because I’m just not quite as plugged into those sports as I am elsewhere.

We’re also expecting a rugby preview from another contributor soon.

All of which means you should be adding Sports Myriad to your RSS readers if you haven’t already.

A couple of items of interest so far this week, starting with games played with the head rather than hands or feet:

Chess: Vishy Anand has retained the world title, but the man to watch is 19-year-old Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. He is already No. 1 on FIDE’s rating list and is gaining on Garry Kasparov’s all-time high. NYT blogger Dylan Loeb McClain tells us he wins with creativity rather than encyclopedic knowledge of familiar openings. And he already has some celebrity appeal, joining Liv Tyler for some sort of fashion shoot this week.

Another youngster, 22-year-old Czech grandmaster Viktor Laznicka won the World Open, a top U.S. event. Lubomir Kavalek takes us through a wide-open game Laznicka won with black.

Poker: Daniel Alaei won the pot-limit Omaha world title for his third World Series of Poker bracelet. (Not this year — only Frank Kassela, who win Player of the Year honors unless one of his pursuers can reach the November Nine, has two bracelets this summer.)

Pros and semi-pros (Kassela is considered semi-pro) have won most of the events this year, but one of the last event winners before the Main Event is a Dutch physicist named Marcel Vonk. Good week for the Netherlands.

Day 1A of the Main Event (the tournament is so large that players start on four different days — 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D) featured Chris Moneymaker, the amateur who helped launch the poker boom with his unlikely Main Event win a few years ago, and cross-country skier Petter Northug, perhaps the only World Series of Poker participant whom I saw in a press conference tent in Whistler this year.

My former USA TODAY colleague Gary Mihoces has landed in Vegas and tells us Ray Romano has busted out. He also has details on Phil Hellmuth’s planned MMA-style entrance, featuring Wanderlei Silva, King Mo and the man himself, Bruce Buffer.

ESPN has a video interview with one of its own, former baseball pitcher Orel Hershiser, who comes up with some clever analogies between baseball and poker:

Cycling: One day after the cobblestones rattled Lance Armstrong and others, we had a much less eventful day at the Tour de France and the usual first-week sprint finish.

Soccer: Hey, there’s a game on.

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Jul 05

Monday Myriad: Want U.S. world titles? We’ve got ‘em

By Beau Dure chess, cycling, olympic sports, poker, soccer, tennis, track and field, tv No Comments »

Even with an extra day, the weekend was overstuffed:

Soccer: No disrespect to Uruguay and the Netherlands, but isn’t the Germany-Spain matchup as good as it gets? The most explosive team in the Cup against a team that has spent the last three and a half years as the Harlem Globetrotters of world soccer?

Closer to home, MLS had terrific goals in the Seattle-Los Angeles matchup, and Conor Casey is playing like he’s still auditioning for the national team. Or like he thinks he’s Marta.

Tennis: Serena and Nadal winning Wimbledon isn’t the surprise. The surprise is that Roger Federer has fallen all the way to No. 3.

Track and field: David Oliver set an American record in the 110 hurdles at the Prefontaine Classic, which also saw Walter Dix outrun Tyson Gay down the stretch in the 200. Field events were less kind to Americans — Dwight Phillips finished second in the long jump and pulled up with some sort of strain, and Jenn Suhr no-heighted in the pole vault.

Softball: Not all of the games were easy, but the USA trounced Japan 7-0 in five innings in the World Championship final.

Water polo: Soccer isn’t the only sport settled with a penalty shootout. The U.S. women tied Australia 7-7 in the World League final and won the shootout. Brenda Villa was named top player; Betsey Armstrong was top goalkeeper.

Gymnastics: Bronze for U.S. men at Japan Cup, featuring mostly A-teamers.

Cycling: The Tour de France is underway, which means it’s time for one of the funniest annual reading activities — the Tour de Schmalz. If you prefer drama to comedy, read the Wall Street Journal‘s harrowing story on Floyd Landis’ doping allegations.

Poker: The Main Event is underway, even as two other events are still going … and going … and going …

The Tournament of Champions is over, at least, with Huck Seed outlasting Howard Lederer.

Volleyball: The U.S. men got two wins in Egypt, leaving themselves in contention to make the World League’s six-team final tournament. All they have to do is beat pool-leading Russia twice July 9-10 in Wichita.

Beach volleyball: Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers remained unbeatable, winning the FIVB event in Norway. Yes, Norway. What? They have beaches.

MMA: All hail Brock Lesnar.

Chess: Yes, they exhumed Bobby Fischer.

And a couple of random reads of interest …

Cricket: Did you know about Staten Island’s cricket history?

Soccer: One of the best reads about South Africa since the Cup started — meet Santos, “The People’s Team.” (Not in the Communist sense.)

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Jul 02

Friday Myriad: Wimbledon, World Cup, le Tour

By Beau Dure cycling, mma, olympic sports, poker, soccer, tennis, track and field, tv No Comments »

Funny thing about July 4th weekend – the most important action in the sports world is all overseas.

The three-day absence from posting here won’t happen often. Had a lot of actual paid work to do, plus a week of solo parenting. Shouldn’t have a break like this until vacation.

Off we go (all times ET) …

HEADLINES

Water polo: Big comeback keeps the U.S. women unbeaten in World League final tournament.

Poker: The last weekend before the Main Event — the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold-’em World Championship that draws thousands of entrants and weeks of ESPN coverage — features several events of interest:

  • Tournament of Champions: They’ve only knocked the field down the original 27 to 17, and that’s causing scheduling problems. The idea was to play it across two weekends. They’ll resume Saturday at 10 p.m. IF none of the 17 players is busy in another event. They may have to resume at noon Sunday. That’s 9 a.m. Vegas time. Is anyone awake then?
  • $25,000 buy-in six-handed no-limit hold’em: Several big names just missed out on the final three tables (18 players) — John Juanda, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso, Freddy Deeb, Erik Seidel and Phil Ivey. But Daniel Negreanu is still in, threatening Saturday’s Tournament of Champions start. So is Frank Kassela, who’s in position to edge Juanda for Player of the Year honors.
  • Pot-limit Omaha World Championship: Phil Hellmuth is still active in this one and the TOC, and a few other notable names are still going after Day 1.
  • Two smaller no-limit hold’em events that shouldn’t attract may top players.
  • Ante Up for Africa: Poker pro Annie Duke and actor Don Cheadle host an annual charity event that usually draws a good crowd of celebrities, some of whom hang around for the Main Event the next week, and many top players, though the crowded schedule may preclude a few people from entering.

FRIDAY (all times ET)

10 a.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Netherlands-Brazil. ESPN / ESPN Deportes / ESPN3 / Univision

10:45ish a.m.: Wimbledon men’s semifinal, Andy Murray-Rafael Nadal. Winner faces Tomas Berdych, who upset Roger Federer this week and Novak Djokovic this morning. Murray’s path of Nadal, always better on clay and inconsistent here, and Berdych is Britain’s best hope in a generation. ESPN2, shifting to NBC at noon

2:30 p.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Uruguay-Ghana. Just think — this could be the USA. ESPN / ESPN Deportes / ESPN3 / Univision

7:30 p.m.: Softball, World Championship final, USA vs. Canada-Japan winner. Not vouching at all for quality, reliability or even safety of this Webcast. Venezuelan government

SATURDAY

9 a.m.: Wimbledon women’s final, Serena Williams-Vera Zvonareva. Also should get some doubles finals, with at least one American player to appear in the women’s doubles. NBC

10 a.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Argentina-Germany. ABC / ESPN Deportes  / Univision

11:30 a.m.: Tour de France, prologue. Lance Armstrong is saying this will be his last, though he has said that before. If he’s trying for an individual win rather than a teammate’s win this year, he’ll need to do well in the time trials, starting here. Versus

2:30 p.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Paraguay-Spain. ABC / ESPN Deportes  / Univision

4:30 p.m.: Track and field, Diamond League Prefontaine Classic. One of the most storied meets in the USA is now part of the world’s top circuit. Full preview coming later today. Really. Hold me to it. NBC

5:30 p.m.: Poker, $25K no-limit hold’em six-handed. See above. ESPN3

7:30 p.m.: Water polo, World League women’s final. TeamUSA.org

8 p.m.: MLS, Columbus-Chicago. FSC

9 p.m.: UFC 116, Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin for the heavyweight title in the main event. Spike has Seth Petruzelli, whose win over Kimbo Slice was erroneously called the biggest upset in MMA history at the time, in one of its two prelims. Spike, shifting to PPV at 10 p.m.

10:30 p.m.: MLS, Chivas USA-Philadelphia. FSC

SUNDAY

8:30 a.m.: Cycling, Tour de France, Stage 1. Cue the sprinters. Thor smash? Versus

9 a.m.: Wimbledon men’s final and possibly mixed doubles final. NBC

Noon: Hot dog eating. No Kobayashi? ESPN3

10:30 p.m.: MLS, Los Angeles-Seattle. ESPN2

MORE MYRIAD

  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: Australian Rules football, CFL, golf, lacrosse and poker.
  • Tennis Channel: Classic matches.
  • Universal Sports: Beach volleyball and more Prefontaine Classic coverage.
  • More Olympic sports: Canoe/kayak World Cup final stop, U17 men’s basketball World Championship, U.S. men’s volleyball in Egypt for World League
Jun 28

Monday Myriad: Marry Lolo, beat Phelps

By Beau Dure mma, olympic sports, poker, soccer, track and field 1 Comment »

A few things aside from the World Cup, the USA Track and Field Championships, the MLS weekend and Strikeforce, all of which will be covered in greater detail later.

Poker: The World Series of Poker’s Tournament of Champions has run into a small problem: No one’s getting eliminated.

Tennis: The top four men’s seeds — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray — are all through the quarterfinals, along with No. 6 Robin Soderling. No. 5 Andy Roddick lost in five (fifth set: 9-7) to unknown Taiwanese player Yen-Hsun Lu. He took it well, as always.

The women’s quarterfinals consist of the Williams sisters, Kim Clijsters (winner of the grudge match against Justine Henin) and five players you’ve never heard of.

MMA: No UFC future for Jamie “Crabman” Yager?

Action sports: Shaun White aggravated an ankle injury and couldn’t compete at the Dew Tour/International Skate Federation World Championship, so he did some commentary and signed some autographs. Nice guy, articulate, humble — he’s an action sports-hater’s worst nightmare.

Swimming: Michael Phelps is quite human in the middle year between Olympics.

Track and field/MLS: As MLS commissioner, Doug Logan presided over the start of youth program Project 40. Now with USA Track and Field, he is overseeing the berth of Project 30. Scaling back?

And in more track and field/MLS news, Lolo Jones is bidding to be the funniest Olympic athlete on Twitter.

Soccer: Soccernet’s scoreboard for Wednesday reads “No matches on this date.” That just means Soccernet doesn’t get scores for the U.S. Open Cup or WPS All-Star Game (7:30 p.m. ET, FSC). This game never, ever stops.

Jun 25

Friday Myriad: Enjoy the USA-Ghana game for what it is

By Beau Dure mma, olympic sports, poker, soccer, tennis, track and field, tv No Comments »

At some point, it’s just about the game.

If Landon Donovan scores a hat trick in a crushing 5-2 win over Ghana tomorrow, it won’t suddenly fill every MLS stadium and push Fox Soccer Channel’s MLS broadcasts to NFL levels. Nor would a 3-0 loss send U.S. soccer back to 1985. (The year, not the excellent Bowling for Soup song.)

Saturday’s game is a great opportunity for the USA to match its best modern-day World Cup finish (no, I don’t count 1930 as modern-day in this case) and perhaps move on to more. Nothing more, nothing less.

And it’s part of this complete weekend, which includes the return of MLS.

HEADLINES

Poker: Most recent world champions are Ayaz Mahmood (heads-up no-limit hold’em) and Valdemar Kwaysser (pot-limit hold’em). Phil Ivey won his eighth WSOP bracelet in H.O.R.S.E., but he’s not in the H.O.R.S.E. world championship due to end Friday. The tournament of champions starts Sunday with 27 players and will be whittled to a final nine to resume next Sunday.

MMA: Like occasional U.S. wrestling teammate Ben Askren, Joe Warren has won a Bellator tournament. Russia’s Alexander Shlemenko is the middleweight winner. (MMA Fighting Stances)

FRIDAY

2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Chile-Spain. Chile has two wins but technically isn’t safe — a loss here and a Swiss win would send us to goal difference (currently Chile +2, Switzerland 0 – so the Swiss would at least tie them with a win and Chile loss), goals scored (Chile 2, Switzerland 1) , then head-to-head (Chile). Not lots. Spain, the pick of many to win it all, would advance with a win or likely by matching Switzerland’s result (points AND goal difference on the day). The other wild-card scenario that would keep Spain out: a loss and a Honduras rout. ESPN/ESPN Deportes/Univision/ESPN3

2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Switzerland-Honduras. See above. A rout would clinch Switzerland’s spot, but that’s not their style. Realistically, they need a win plus any of the following: Chile win, Chile-Spain draw, Spain rout. A draw does Switzerland no good unless Spain loses. Honduras needs a rout and a Spain loss. ESPN2/TeleFutura/ESPN3

9 p.m.: MLS, Salt Lake-San Jose. Welcome back to league play with a good one. Direct Kick/MLSSoccer.com

SATURDAY

7 a.m.: Wimbledon, ESPN2, over to NBC at noon

10 a.m.: World Cup round of 16, Uruguay-South Korea. Winner gets USA-Ghana winner. ESPN/ESPN Deportes/Univision/ESPN3

1 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. ESPN

2:30 p.m.: World Cup round of 16, USA-Ghana. No more to say. ABC/ESPN Deportes/Univision … NOT ESPN3

3 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. Should include men’s 400, men’s 400 hurdles, women’s 1,500, women’s 100 hurdles. NBC

4 p.m.: Action sports, Dew Tour Skate Open/ISF World Championships. Shaun White and Ryan Sheckler expected. NBC

7:30 p.m.: MLS, Toronto-Los Angeles. Can the Galaxy keep winning without Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle against the excellent Dwayne De Rosario and the less-excellent rogue’s gallery that fouls effectively? Fox Soccer Channel

10 p.m.: MMA, Strikeforce, featuring Fedor Emelianenko-Fabricio Werdum heavyweight bout. Also a women’s title fight between Cris Cyborg and Jan Finney, a rematch for Cung Le against Scott Smith, and a lightweight bout between Josh Thomson and Pat Healy.

SUNDAY

10 a.m.: World Cup round of 16, Germany-England. Just a bit of history here. ESPN/ESPN Deportes/Univision/ESPN3

1 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. Should have a healthy dose of live field events and taped track events. ESPN

2 p.m.: Beach volleyball, AVP Belmar (N.J.) Open, women’s final. ESPN2

2:30 p.m.: World Cup round of 16, Argentina-Mexico. For Spanish-speaking U.S. viewers, this is the non-USA game of the tournament. ABC/ESPN Deportes/Univision … NOT ESPN3

3 p.m.: Track and field, USA Championships. Includes men’s and women’s 200 finals, plus men’s 1,500 and 110 hurdles. NBC

4 p.m.: Beach volleyball, AVP Belmar (N.J.) Open, men’s final. Universal Sports

5 p.m.: MLS, Seattle-Philadelphia. ESPN2

6 p.m.: WPS, Bay Area-New Jersey (Gold Pride-Sky Blue). Front-runners break in new stadium against defending champs. FSC/WPS online

OLYMPIC SPORTS

  • Softball: Well, it’s still an Olympic sport to us. The World Championships are in progress in Venezuela. USA opened with 1-0 win over China and will continue pool play against New Zealand (Friday), Venezuela (Friday), Botswana (yes, really — Saturday), rival Australia (Sunday), Dominican Republic (Monday) and Czech Republic (Monday). Japan and Canada are in the other pool. Live stats at USA Softball.
  • Water polo: Women’s World League Super Final starts Monday in SoCal.
  • More events: Canoe/kayak World Cup, U.S. Rowing championships.

MORE MYRIAD

  • USA Track and Field Championships: Webcasting when not on TV.
  • World Series of Poker: How to follow.
  • College World Series (NCAA baseball): UCLA, TCU, South Carolina and Clemson remaining. ESPN/2/3 splitting coverage.
  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: Plenty of Wimbledon matches, Australian Rules football and poker, plus World Cup and college baseball simulcasts.
  • Tennis Channel: Wimbledon analysis and classic matches.
  • Universal Sports: Beach volleyball and triathlon.
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